1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention is directed to a method and equipment for removing and throwing away snow from a road. The method is to scrape the snow up from the road, lead it to a wind channel and to blow air along the wind channel in a direction away from the scraper and away from the road.
The snow remover includes an air blower and air channel from its pressure side to a hole or holes in the scraper blade or an air channel along the scraper on its rear and leading to conveying holes for the snow into that air channel, or an air channel along the scraper at its front, formed by the scraper and extending blades and flaps.
The snow removal equipment either moves the snow to one side, alternately to both sides, or to both sides at the same time. The scraper blade can be fixed, straight or plow formed, can be raised and lowered and can be inclinable. The blower is either powered by its own motor or powered by the motor of the associated vehicle, which can be a truck, a tractor, a heavy-duty universal tractor, a car, a jeep or a road planer or special snow removal equipment. Also to be considered are hand operated equipment, pushed forward similar to a lawn mower.
2. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
The most common snow removal equipment is a scraper, mounted on a heavy truck. The scraper lifts the snow up from the road. It is inclined and therefore at the same time snow is progressively pushed to one side, where it builds up as a ridge or a snowbank all along the road. This ridge causes much trouble. It is hindering to all vehicle traffic and encloses or blocks vehicles at the roadside whereafter they must be shoveled free. In a wind the snow is drifting over the ridge and down to the road and in such cases that snow must subsequently be removed along with the snow in the ridge too.
Scrapers are very effective and in an even snow they can be forced forward at a full speed of say 80 km/hr, if the road and conditions allow. Then the snow is thrown out over the roadside and does not form a ridge. Such conditions are very rare. Bad weather conditions, snowfall, unclear view, darkness, bends in the road, traffic, vehicles on the roadside, safety fences and other hindrances all limit the speed and the resultant loss of inertia leads to the unavoidable snow ridge.
Another common snow removal equipment is the snow blower. It does not include a scraper, but uses a spiral mechanism, which moves the snow to the middle point where the snow enters a centrifugal blower, which directly pumps it through and blows it upwards in a direction over the roadside. The snow blower is mainly used to remove snow ridges left by scrapers. It is ineffective and moves slowly. The typical speed is 1 to 3 km/hr and it effects 10 to 18 tons/min.
The third snow removal equipment is the snowplow, which is a plow-formed scraper, moving the snow to both sides and is mainly used on snowbanks, where the scraper is unable to get through. The plow is a much heavier apparatus than the scraper and made for greater impact and needs a high powered, heavy vehicle behind itself. With a sufficient speed (80 km/hr) the plow can throw the snow over the roadside and then no snow ridge is formed.
Thus various prior art snow removal equipment serve their own purpose in snow-removal. The plow works the snowbanks but is unnecessarily big and heavy for other situations. The snow blower is usable on ridges and snowbanks, but is slow and ineffective in other cases. The snow scrapers are most suitable for even snow, but they only remove sufficiently at full speed, where there are no hindrances, otherwise they leave ridges.
Bulldozers are not directly snow-removal equipment, but still are used for pushing away ridges and snowbanks. They move slowly but can move everything. Road planers can push snow ridges a little to one side and widen the free road but are otherwise only slow-moving scrapers. Powered shovels are able to shovel away snowbanks and ridges and when outfitted with scrapers they are slow-moving scrapers.
From this it should be clear, that there is a considerable need for snow removal equipment, which can remove snow at full speed, where conditions allow, and remove sufficiently at slow speed, when conditions do not allow greater speed. Also there is a considerable need for snow removal equipment, which can effectively operate with different hindrances on the roadside, for example cars, which have stuck in the snow and have been left behind, guardrails along the roadside, traffic signs, trees and such things, and generally all hindrances in areas, which are to be cleared or which snow ridges will cover. The purpose of the invention is to create such an equipment. Such equipment is capable of clearing the road at full speed when conditions allow and at slow speed without forming ridges and is capable of clearing stuck cars and hindrances of any kind, all without the necessity of other equipment.